Worcester poet's legacy, room by room

WORCESTER — The towering three-story building on Woodford Street was not a happy home for Stanley Kunitz, who grew up to become a Pulitzer Prize-winning poet and U.S. poet laureate.

It was where his stepfather died, where he spent hours alone reading, where his mother ripped up an old picture of his father, who committed suicide at Elm Park weeks before Mr. Kunitz was born on July 29, 1905.

But 4 Woodford St. also became the home of Carol and Gregory Stockmal. The couple bought it about 60 years later and slowly have restored the home, but with a new feeling of warmth and love. And then, in a chance meeting, they invited him in.

"This was a house of sorrows that transformed into ... a house of love and friendship," said John Gaumond, a member of the Worcester County Poetry Association and a docent leading tours of Mr. Kunitz's boyhood house. Mr. Gaumond's wife designed the docent guide.

Since her husband and Mr. Kunitz have died, Mrs. Stockmal is continuing the legacy of the poet in Worcester. On Sunday and Monday, she and volunteers from the Worcester County Poetry Association offered free tours for the public, as well as poetry readings, as part of an annual event.

Heather Lennon of Lancaster attended the tour and said her favorite part was standing in the backyard to hear a recording of Mr. Kunitz reading one of his most famous poems, "My Mother's Pears."

After the Stockmals met Mr. Kunitz, they sent the best pears from the tree to his home in Provincetown each fall for 20 years.

"The house takes almost a feeling of its own," Ms. Lennon said.

Although Mr. Kunitz's mother never celebrated birthdays, the Poetry Association has a party each year for him in late July. During a tour Monday, not only was Mr. Kunitz's high chair on display but on it was a preserved piece of his 100th birthday cake, celebrated less than a year before his death in 2006.

The volunteer tour leaders showed that every corner of the home held a story, and with each story was a piece of literature that Mr. Kunitz wrote in a career spanning 80 years.

On Thursday, the Poetry Association and the Museum of Russian Icons will hold an event featuring the work of Russian modernist poet Anna Akhmatova with readings in its original language as well as English translations of her poems by Mr. Kunitz. It will be held at the museum on Union Street in Clinton at 6 p.m. For more details, visit wcpa.homestead.com

Contact Alli Knothe at aknothe@telegram.com. Follow her on Twitter @KnotheA